A sermon preached July 2, at the funeral of Mr. John Wells late pastor…

3. Time is short compared with Eternity. There is no Prospective-glass to see to the end of Eternity. Eternity is a Day that hath no Sun-setting^*. It is a Circle without beginning or end. Eternity is a sum that can never be numbered, a Line that can never be measured: reckon as many millions of years as there have been minutes ⟨p. 7⟩since the Creation, and they stand for Ciphers in Eternity. The most elevated strains of Rhetoric cannot reach Eternity^*: It is a Sea without Bottom and Banks. Time may be compared to a spot of Earth lying at the mouth of the great Ocean; Time is a Spot on this side Eternity; and what a little of that Spot is Mans life! Thus you see in what sense Time is short.

3. Time is short compared with Eternity. There is no Prospective-glass to see to the end of Eternity. Eternity is a Day that hath no Sun-setting^*. It is a Circle without beginning or end. Eternity is a sum that can never be numbred, a Line that can never be measured: reckon as many millions of years as there have been minutes ⟨p. 7⟩since the Creation, and they stand for Ciphers in Eternity. The most elevated strains of Rhetorique cannot reach Eternity^*: It is a Sea without Bottom and Banks. Time may be compared to a spot of Earth lying at the mouth of the great Ocean; Time is a Spot on this side Eternity; and what a little of that Spot is Mans life! Thus you see in what sense Time is short.

1. *Una dies continua occajum non habens. Gerh.
2. *Cogita centum millia annorum, cogita decies Centena millia annorum, Cogita mille millions annorum, immò saeculorum nondum in choasti aeternum. Corn. à Lap.